When Trump got hold of the new military options for North Korea,
he again declined to act.

But according to Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Stimson
Center, Trump never had any good options for dealing with North
Korea, and he has even worse options now.

"The ICBM test removed the false hope that we might be able to
stop North Korean nuclear provocations with either sanctions or
the use of military provocations," Sun said.

North Korea has vastly accelerated the pace of its missile
testing under Trump's presidency, but it had been preparing these
tests for years, dating back to the Clinton administration. By
the time Trump took office, North Koreans were just a few months
from achieving
their goal of a working ICBM.

North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting defense detachments in an
undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News
Agency on May 5.KCNA/ via
REUTERS

According to Sun, nothing was going to stop them at this late
stage.

In years past, North Korea had floated the idea of suspending its
missile program in exchange for the
US halting military drills with South Korea, but the US
refused every time on the grounds that the regularly planned,
completely legal drills did not at all compare with Kim Jong Un's
nuclear threats and illegal development.

Now, faced with the possibility that North Korea has an
unstoppable nuclear bomb, why would the US lay down its arms?

"The one thing we wanted to prevent North Korea from having, they
already have it," Sun said. "What is the reasoning for us to
suspend our military exercises at this point?"

A
South Korean Marine, right, with US Marines in Pohang, South
Korea, in 2015 during the annual joint military exercise Foal
Eagle between South Korea and the US.Lee Jin-man/AP

The US and the international community can agree on sanctions for
North Korea, which
China may water down, but diplomatic talks are now strained,
and the US's hand is undeniably weaker.